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Welcome to Unpacking the Mass with Keith Nestor. On this podcast, we dig into the week's readings for the upcoming Sunday for the Catholic Church so that when you go to Mass, you are ready to hear what God has to say to you through the Scriptures. So grab your Bibles and let's get digging. Hey, friends. Welcome to Unpacking the Mass. Today we're looking at the readings for the third Sunday in Easter. So we're going to keep saying it. He is risen. He is risen indeed. We celebrate that really every Sunday because that is the center of our faith. And we're going to talk about what that means today. It's often the case that when you get into the world of preaching and churches especially sometimes there can be this tendency to think that the basic central truth of the Gospel message and the resurrection message are just sort of outdated and boring and maybe, you know, a little overdone. So people can sometimes have these desires to make their ministry really about something else, or they're preaching about something else. I remember when I was in seminary, there was a person in our school who was talking about their. Their reason for wanting to be a pastor and happened to be a woman. And she said, well, I wanted to become a pastor so that I could really advance women's issues and equality for women and all of this kind of stuff. And I remember saying to her, I'm like, look, that's fine, but what about the Gospel? What about Jesus? And she kind of looked at me and she's like, oh, well, you know, I never really thought about that before. And I'm not saying this to, like, beat up on women or whatever, but what I'm saying is I've met plenty of dudes who also have some other agenda. They have some kind of pet theological project or an ax to grind or something, or a cause that they're really fired up about, and they use their platform or their, you know, pulpit to push those things through. And it's amazing to me how easy that can happen. But what we're going to see in these readings today, and really what is at the center of the Catholic Church, is how the resurrected Jesus Christ must always be the point, must always be the point. Now, that doesn't mean you can't ever talk about other things, but never at the expense of that and never at the neglect of that. So we're going to look at this incredible sermon by St. Peter, the first Gospel presentation sermon by the apostle here, and see what happened to this guy. It's pretty amazing. Powerful stuff. My Friends. All right, let's begin with the word of prayer, and then we'll jump in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Lord, you are risen. And may that truth be at the center of everything so that we can see you and not be carried away by all these other things, not be distracted by our disappointments, and not be moved in a direction contrary to what you are, where you are, and what you're doing. We pray these things in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Okay, our first reading. Acts, chapter two, right after Pentecost. You know, this is on Pentecost. It says in verse 14 here as we read. But Peter, standing with the 11, lifted up his voice and addressed them. Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you and give ear to my words. Men of Israel, hear these words. Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs which God did through him in your midst. And as you yourselves know, this Jesus delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God. You crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. But God raised him up, having loosed the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it. For David says, concerning him, I saw the Lord always before me, for he is at my right hand, that I may not be shaken. Therefore my heart was glad and my tongue rejoiced. Moreover, my flesh will dwell in hope, for thou wilt not abandon my soul to Hades, nor let the Holy One see corruption. Thou hast made known to me the ways of life. Thou wilt make me full of gladness with thy presence. Brethren, I may say to you confidently of the patriarch David that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. Being therefore a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that he would set one of his descendants upon his throne, he foresaw and spoke of the resurrection of the Christ that he was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption. This Jesus God raised up, and of that we are all witnesses. Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this which you see and hear. That is amazing. I mean, we're going to get into what that's all about, but I just have to stop and say, wow, incredible. All right, our second reading also from the words of St. Peter. This is from First Peter, chapter one, verses 17 through 21. Take a listen to this. And if you invoke as father him who judges each one impartially according to his deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile. You know that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your fathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb, without blemish or spot. He was destined before the foundation of the world, but was made manifest at the end of the times for your sake. Through him you have confidence in God, who. Who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God. And then our Gospel today from Luke 24. This is powerful stuff. The Road to Emmaus. That very day, two of them were going to a village named Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, and talking with each other about all these things that had happened. While they were talking and discussing together, Jesus himself drew near and went with them, but their eyes were kept from recognizing him. Then he said to them, what is this conversation which you are holding with each other as you walk? And they stood still, looking sad. Then one of them, named Cleopas, answered him, are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days? And he said to them, what things? And they said to him concerning Jesus of Nazareth, and who was a prophet, mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, and how our chief priests and rulers delivered him up to be condemned to death and crucified him. But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since this happened. Moreover, some women of our company amazed us. They were at the tomb early in the morning and did not find his body. And they came back saying that they had even seen a vision of angels who who had said that he was alive. Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it, just as the women had said. But him they did not see. And he said to them, o foolish men and slow of heart, to believe all that the prophets have spoken. Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory? And beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself. So they drew near to the village to which they were going. He appeared to be going further, but they constrained him, saying, stay with us, for it is toward Evening, and the day is now far spent. So he went in to stay with them. When he was at table with them, he took the bread and blessed it and broke it and gave it to them. And their eyes were opened and they recognized him. And he vanished out of their sight. They said to each other, did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures? And they rose that same hour and returned to Jerusalem. And they found the 11 gathered together and those who were with them who said, the Lord has risen indeed and has appeared to Simon. Then they told what had happened on the road and how he was known to them in the breaking of the bread. Powerful stuff, man. The central message of the risen Christ. That's what we're going to talk about today. But let's talk about Peter and why he was able to do what he did at Pentecost. Now, remember, these guys are all gathered in the upper room, and they're terrified. They're there out of fear, huddled together. Christ had already promised them, though, before he ascended, that the power of the Holy Spirit would come upon them and they would be his witnesses. And beyond that, Peter himself had been given an incredible responsibility. He'd had his name changed from Simon to Peter, which literally means rock. And Jesus told him, upon this rock, I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. I give to you, Peter, singular, the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loose in heaven. And then, of course, later, after Peter's betrayal, his restoration takes place. And Jesus says to him, feed my sheep, feed my lambs. He gives him this responsibility, and he promises him that the Holy Spirit's going to come. And even though Peter doesn't understand everything that that means, he was obedient, even though he had failed. And now he's stepping into his destiny to be the leader of the church and to proclaim the gospel, to proclaim the risen Christ to these people. Friends, and I'm so thankful that Jesus didn't give up on Peter, that Peter wasn't defined by his failure, but rather by who Jesus says he was. I want you to think about that, because some of us have had some great failures, and some of us have chosen to define ourselves according to our failure and thus are missing our destiny, because the Lord is calling us into that. But we say, wait a minute. No, I can't do that. Judas was defined by his failure. Why? Because he refused to go back to Jesus. He refused to believe that there could be any hope of his redemption, so he hanged himself. Peter, on the contrary, went back to the church, went back to the apostles, went back to the community, went back to Jesus. So the lesson for all of us here today is this. And I know this is kind of an aside. God's destiny for you hasn't changed because you failed. So get up and get back to the church, get up and get back to Jesus and receive that power and that boldness to proclaim the truth that he's given you. It's not about you, it's about Him. See, our problem is we make it too much about us. And then we look at ourselves. And if we're really good, we go, hey, look at me. I'm so awesome. Look what I can do. Then we become prideful and puffed up. But on the other hand, if we are sinners, which we are, but if we become discouraged and hopeless and we like, oh, poor me, I can't do anything, then it's about us again, isn't it? So the answer to that is the same. Whether you're on the side of pride or the side of shame, it's make it about Jesus. And that's what Peter's doing here. And that's what he's really doing when he starts proclaiming this gospel message. What made him such a powerful preacher, my friends, was the Holy Spirit who came upon him and gave him the ability to proclaim the truth to the same people he was terrified of. Where do you need that power in your life, my brothers and sisters? God wants to give it to you. Now, does that mean you're going to be like Peter and preach a big sermon and throw. 3,000 people are going to be cut to the heart and get saved? Hey, maybe so. Maybe it just means you're going to be a bold witness to your faith in your family or at your workplace or at your school or in your marriage. I don't know what it means for you, but here's what I do know. God has a plan for you. And his plan for you isn't dependent on what you think of yourself. It's dependent on what he thinks of you and whether you're willing to be obedient to that and receive the power that he has for you. But look at this message that Peter proclaims. This is so powerful, my friends. He connects this message to the reality of their current experience. We are all witnesses of this. We saw this. This is what we're Talking about, He talks about King David, he talks about all these things. He's like, look, we're the witnesses of this. And then he invites them into that reality. This is a great way to evangelize, isn't it? Sometimes when you're talking to somebody who doesn't know the Lord, the best thing to do is find some common ground to start with and then work forward from there. What might that look like? You know, it depends on who you're talking to. But some people might say things like, well, I don't know if I believe in all this, you know, Catholic Church stuff, all this organized religion. You know, I believe in Jesus, but you know, I don't know, this just seems like there's a lot of rules there. Seems like this is just a lot of man made traditions and rituals. Okay, well, let's just back up to where you have agreement. You believe in Jesus, right? Okay, you believe that what he says is true. So then you take them to the scriptures where he talks about his church and the Eucharist and you move forward from there. But what if maybe they're not even sure about Jesus? What if they're just like, well, I don't know if Jesus was a real guy or if he's, you know, the claims of the gospel are true or whatever. Well, you know, do you believe that you exist? Well, yeah, obviously. Do you believe that you were created? Well, yeah, there is a God, but I don't know, you know. Okay, so then you get to the reality of did Jesus exist? Start there and move forward. Find a point of agreement where you can step into that commonality and then move forward. Because here are the four things that you're trying to get to. Number one, there is a God. Number two, he sent Jesus to this world. Number three, Jesus was crucified and resurrected. And number four, Jesus started a church. That's really ultimately the pathway that we're going down. And if you don't have number four, then go to number three. If you don't have number three, then go to number two. If you don't have number two, then go to number one. If you don't have number one, then you got problems. You know, we all have problems, but I think you get the drift that I'm saying here. Connect the gospel to their, to what they already know to be true and move into that and you'll see powerful things happen. That's what Peter does. But notice this. The message that Peter's preaching is not cute and it's not clever at all. It's the resurrection of Jesus. And at its core, this is the message that the church continues to preach today. Like I said earlier, not social issues, not axes to grind about things in the world. Not your favorite cause, but Jesus. That's what we need to get back to. That's what we need to do. And whenever I go to hear somebody preach and if they don't find some way to connect what they're saying to Jesus, man, I'm very disappointed. Then you might say, what are you talking about, Keith? Shouldn't everyone. Yeah, they should, but they don't always do that. I have been to every kind of service you can think of. Catholic, Protestant, all of it. And there have been some good ones and there have been some bad ones. And the difference is, did they connect it to Christ or did they make it about something else completely? I remember one time I was preaching a sermon. This is back when I was a pastor, obviously. And I was. It was Mother's Day, I remember. And we were doing a sermon series through the gospel. And, you know, I just continued to preach my sermon series through the gospel. I did say, happy Mother's Day to all you mothers out there. And then I was like, today we're in whatever chapter and verse we were in. And I preached my gospel centered sermon. And afterward, a guy came up to me that I didn't know, and he said, hey, I want to talk to you for a second. I said, sure. And he introduced himself to me and he said that, you know, he's from out of town, doesn't go to our church. And that. He said, that was. That was a good. You know, you're a good speaker. He said, but I just want you to know how disappointed I am because, you know, I came to church today, and I think the idea was that he normally doesn't, but he's like, I came to church today because it's Mother's Day, and I wanted to honor my mother and come to church, and I expected to hear a sermon about mothers. And I didn't hear that. And I just wanted you to know that I was disappointed. And I thought, okay. So I looked at this guy and I just said, well, I'm sorry you were disappointed, but we're gonna preach Jesus every day, even on Mother's Day. And I'm sorry if that was a disappointment to you. And then he kind of like, you know, condescendingly turned away and walked out of there. And I don't apologize for that. You know, I don't think that we can have these Experiences where we put everything else in front of Jesus, even in the church, because we've already heard about all that. Everybody already knows. No, they don't. We got to keep the point to Jesus. And that's why I love the readings in the church, because they always carry us to that central message. And of course, the liturgical year does the same thing. And then, of course, what is the source and summit of our faith? What is the center of our worship experience? It's not the preacher. It's the Eucharist. At the center of our church, we have the Resurrected Jesus Christ with us, the body, blood, soul, and divinity, the there with us, right in the center. That's why I love it when the tabernacle's right smack in the middle. I'm not a fan. When it's down in the hall someplace or when you walk in and you don't know where it is. No, my friends, Jesus needs to be in the center. And that's what I love about being Catholic, because at the core, he is. You know, I know people get worked up about crucifixes. I was at a service once with a family member who is not Catholic, and we were in a Catholic church. It was for a funeral. And he points up at the crucifix, he's like, you know, he's not still on the cross. Someone should tell you guys that. And I just said, you know, St. Paul said that I preached Christ and him crucified. I said, that's what the Catholic Church preaches. And he just kind of went, oh, well, you know, no, friends, he's in the center. He needs to be. He needs to be in the center of preaching. He needs to be in the center of your life, the center of your preaching. Whatever your life is saying Christ crucified and Resurrected needs to be at the center of. Of that message, my friend. That's what Peter is still talking about here in our second reading right now. Who's Peter speaking to in this second reading? Now, you might be thinking, Keith, I forgot all about that second reading because you've been yakking so long about the first one. Well, okay, but here's the deal, friends. He talks about, if you invoke as Father, him who judges each one impartially according to his deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile. So he's talking to people who are, who look to God the Father. He's talking to believers, and he's saying to these believers, look, you need to conduct yourselves with fear. And some translations say Reverent fear, right? And the idea is that in our worship we need to be about this respect and healthy reverence and even fear of God. Because this contrast exists here. He says, you know that you were ransomed from the feudal ways that you inherited from your fathers, not with perishable things like silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Christ. So he's contrasting the way of the fathers to what Christ has done, these feudal things that they participated in. He's saying, no, you have to remember Christ is center, not works of the law, not your good deeds. But at the same time, he says, because of that, you're going to be judged impartially according to your deeds. Again, this is a real interesting text. If you talk to people who are, you know, faith alone stuff, you ask them, what is the Father judging these people according to, like a lamb, like that of a lamb, without blemish or spot. He was destined before the foundation of the world. Friends, this is powerful, but was made manifest at the end of times for your sake. Through him you have confidence in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God because of the resurrection. You can have confidence. Now you might say, wait a minute, I thought we were supposed to have fear. Isn't fear the opposite of confidence? No, no, no. We're to have fear and reverence in the way we conduct ourselves, but we're to have complete confidence that God can do anything. You see, that's the thing when we talk. Oh, we're supposed to have confidence. Well, a lot of people like to twist that around to say, well, see, I have confidence. I know that. I know that. I know that. I know that. I know that I'm saved and nothing can ever keep me from. That's not what the Bible says, my friends. The Bible says that we are to work out our salvation with fear and trembling, but that there's nothing deficient about Jesus and his work. The deficiency is whether or not we can persevere in that. And by God's grace, we can if we hold fast to the faith. The Bible tells us that over and over and over. And we can approach him with hope because he conquered death in the grave. We don't have to worry that our God is incapable or that our God is incomplete, or that our God is somehow lacking. No, my friends, not at all. That's the message that we proclaim with our life. All right, let's get to our gospel here. The road to amaze. This is such a powerful Set of verses here, because it's something that we can all relate to, I think. Now, who were these guys? You know, Cleopas, these were disciples of Jesus. Now, they weren't of the 12, but you gotta remember Jesus had other disciples that were with them, the 12. But then there was, you know, other 120 people in the upper room. Okay? So there were more than just the 12. And these guys were part of that larger group. And yet when they encountered Jesus, the resurrected Jesus, for some reason they were unable to recognize him. It kind of reminds me of, you know, Mary Magdalene at the tomb. She thinks he's the gardener. She's not able to recognize him. Now, what does that mean? I don't know. Maybe the resurrected Jesus had some kind of countenance about him that that was different. I don't know. But for whatever reason, they were prevented from recognizing him, which I think is very interesting. So they're walking together, and they aren't saying, you know, oh, well, here's what we know happened. They're saying, wow, this is what we heard happened. And they're like, don't you know about all this stuff? And they begin to tell the message of Jesus. This is so important. They begin to talk about the message of Jesus, but then they relate that whole resurrection narrative to something that somebody else said. They're not saying, hey, we know that he was going to rise from the dead, and we believe it. These guys are saying, well, we had hoped, but I guess it didn't happen. Even though some people were saying they didn't affirm it for themselves. So what I want to highlight here is the interesting thing that can happen. Because in some ways, you could say they were disappointed. Sometimes your disappointment distracts from what Jesus is doing. Okay? Their disappointment distracted them from Jesus right in front of them because they couldn't get past that disappointment. And it wasn't until. Which I think is so interesting, that Jesus breaks bread and gives them, you know, this is pretty Eucharistic here. Gives them this bread that they recognize him. I think that's a pretty powerful language there that he's recognized in this eucharistic context here. We'll just go with that. Pretty powerful. That's how he's revealed. And, friends, he continues to be revealed in the Eucharist. He showed how he is, the fulfillment of all of these things in the Eucharist. And that was when their eyes were opened and they could see him. And then they went and declared their own version, their own affirmation of the resurrected Jesus. Their own personal encounter with that. So what is the lesson for each of us? First of all, we have to remember not to let our disappointments distract us from who God is and what he's doing. And you might say, what do you mean? How can we do that? Well, think about it. Have you ever been disappointed with Jesus? It's okay for you to admit it. Have you ever prayed about something and it didn't happen? We probably all have. And that disappointment puts a fog over our relationship with God or our ability to see how God is moving things around and doing things in the midst of that. Because we're so hung up on the fact that it didn't go the way we wanted it to go. We had hoped that he was going to do this. We had hoped that this was going to happen. We had hoped that there was going to be this outcome. And when that didn't happen, sometimes that cloud covers our eyes and we miss the reality of who he is and where he is right in our midst. Don't let your disappointment turn into distance, all right? That's the message today. Because even in that disappointment, he is showing up. And ultimately he is the fulfillment of God's plan to redeem the world, including you. And just like Peter and his disappointment didn't get in the way of his destiny, he your disappointment doesn't get in the way of Jesus destiny either. Think about that. Peter's disappointment himself didn't get in the way of destiny. Don't let your disappointment in Jesus get in the way of his destiny, which ultimately will lead to yours. I understand what it's like. I understand how sometimes following Jesus is really hard to wrap your mind around because you thought things were going a certain way. And then bam, something hits and life just gets thrown a curve ball or something in your faith gets sideways, friends. That's what happens. No one ever said that it wouldn't be that way. But when we take that to mean that, well, I guess God failed notice. That's when Jesus rebukes them. Oh, you foolish guys. You know, didn't you know this was gonna happen? Didn't you know? It's almost like Jesus saying, you foolish guys, I've been with you this entire time and you didn't listen to a word I said. You were so wrapped up on your version of the way things were gonna be that you missed everything that I told you and when it actually happened the way I said it would. You're missing it because you're wrapped up in your lack of understanding. Lord, forgive us when we've done that. Instead, we have to see Him. And how can we see Him? Like, what's the point of all this, the Eucharist? The point of all this is to see him present there and to proclaim his resurrection with your life. Every time you go forward to receive communion, you are proclaiming the resurrection. You are receiving that and declaring it to the world. That's what you should be doing, right? That's where that reverent fear comes in that Peter talked about in his Epistle. Conduct yourselves with reverent fear. When you go and you participate in that, you're not like, oh, whatever. No, be reverent, friends, because you're stepping into the reality of that fulfillment right there in real time. And when you connect that to your destiny, despite your failures and disappointments, recognize God's got a plan for you. But keep the Eucharist, the resurrection of Jesus Christ at the center. And then when whatever happens, you won't be shaken, whatever comes your way, whatever things appear to take you off your gate, no, no, no. Stay the course and you'll be okay. Never stray away from that truth, my friends. God's going to do something great. I mean, look what he did at Pentecost. This was the beginning, friends. This is when things started to just blow up like crazy and God's plan came to fruition. The Gospel has been preached to Judea, Samaria, to the ends of the earth. We're all witnesses of that. We're here because of it. My friends, aren't you so glad that. That Peter didn't decide to talk about politics at Pentecost or his favorite, you know, social cause or whatever? I am. I'm glad that St. Paul did the same thing as he traveled. And I'm glad that the church has continued to maintain the centrality of the resurrection of Jesus and everything that we do in our Catholic faith. And it's up to us to step into that for ourselves as well, my friends. And when it does, we will be like, you know, man, weren't our hearts burning when we heard that? Oh, praise the Lord. It's amazing. Hey, friends, thanks so much for taking time to journey with me here through unpacking the Mass. I love this time. This is my favorite season of the year. It's the Easter season. Because I love these readings in Acts. I love the beauty of the promise of Christ fulfilled in his church. And, you know, part of the reason why I love that so much is because we're still here. You know, we're not looking at this from the outside in going. Yeah, this long lost religion called Christianity was full of all this power 2,000 years ago, but then it, you know, fizzled out in a few generations. No, we're still here, friends. God's plan is being fulfilled and the gates of hell are not prevailing against his church because he is the son of the living. God died and rose again for us. May we give thanks, friends. Thanks so much for being here. I'll talk to you next week. Take care and God bless.